Cloud Firestore vs the Realtime Database: Which one do I use?

Cloud Firestore, released as a generally available Firebase database service in 2019, is positioned as a more structured and scalable alternative to Firebase Realtime Database while retaining real-time synchronization capabilities. It uses a document-and-collection model with shallow queries, supports richer multi-field querying through managed indexes, and is designed to handle substantially more concurrent connections and query workloads that scale with result size rather than total dataset size. Firestore also makes one-time data retrieval a primary API pattern, provides optional real-time listeners, offers regional and multi-region deployments with strong consistency and higher availability guarantees, and uses pricing driven mainly by reads and writes rather than downloads and storage. Realtime Database may remain preferable for native user-presence detection, slightly lower latency, and applications generating extremely frequent small reads and writes, which can cost more on Firestore. New applications are generally advised to begin with Cloud Firestore unless they have these specialized requirements, while existing Realtime Database users are encouraged to migrate only when Firestore’s benefits address a specific need, potentially using both services together.

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